State Council Urges New Funding To Protect Key Environmental Lands

Should the state provide millions more to protect environmentally sensitive areas?

HARTFORD – The state’s official environmental watchdog group is calling on the General Assembly to increase spending for protection of “priority conservation lands” by about $10 million in the coming fiscal year.

The plea for added funding to preserve critical lands and habitats in Connecticut is a key portion of draft legislative recommendations released Wednesday by the state Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

“What we’ve been spending to date hasn’t been enough,” said Karl Wagener, the group’s executive director. “We’re not on track to meet our goals.” But Wagener said the CEQ’s proposal “would not be a huge increase” beyond what the state is now spending.

By law, the council is required every year to report on the status of Connecticut’s environment and to make recommendations for action by the General Assembly. The CEQ’s draft recommendations went online Wednesday with a request for comments and proposed additions or revisions from Connecticut citizens.

The council’s latest report on the state of Connecticut’s environment found that air quality in 2013 was the best in decades, but warned that state efforts to enforce environmental laws and preserve open space and environmentally key areas were faltering.

Wagener said the state has been spending between $5 million and $10 million annually to protect priority conservation lands in this state. He said the council estimates the state needs to increase that funding to about $20 million a year for programs to preserve at least 8,000 acres annually if it wants to achieve its environmental goals.

Added state funding for any environmental programs could be tough to come by in a year when the state is once again facing potential budget deficits.

Other draft recommendations released Wednesday include proposals to:

- Maintain current state bond funding for the state’s Clean Water Fund in order to stop raw sewage overflows into Long Island Sound.

- Provide new funding “to mount an effective defense” against invasive species that pose what the council calls “the largest ecological threat to Connecticut’s native habitats.” The CEQ’s draft recommendation doesn’t offer a specific estimate on the amount of money needed.

- Create automatic penalties (rather than case-by-case fines or penalties determined through individual reviews) for the hundreds of businesses each year that fail to register under environmental laws, fail to conduct required tests or fail to keep proper records. CEQ officials say automatic penalties would free up state environmental staff for more important duties.

- Require that environmentally sensitive facilities, such as some sewage treatment plants that fail to file required monitoring reports, renew their state permits more frequently.

- Continue to fund the state’s farmland preservation program at the current $10 million-a-year level.

Additional recommendations include improved training for local wetlands agencies, adequate money for more staff at state parks, and including funding in the budget for the state water plan.